


While It Lasts

by camilowsky



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Boys In Love, Coming Out, Confessions, English, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Falling In Love, Florida, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Happy Ending, Idiots in Love, Long-Distance Relationship, Long-Term Relationship(s), M/M, Online Dating, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-12 19:55:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 20,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29514957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/camilowsky/pseuds/camilowsky
Summary: "how long will we continue with this little game?""I don''t know" he answers it honestly, after all. He doesn't want to stop, but he knows they'll have to. "I think we should keep it while it lasts"When Dream asked George to be his valentine as a joke, he didn't expected him to actually say yes. Since then, it seems like something is different. And the fact that Dream doesn't know exactly what is wrong pisses him off.[based on a real story]
Relationships: Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 128





	1. And I don't even know why

“How long have you been streaming?” Sapnap asks as soon as he connects on Discord.

“Two and a half hours” George answers it for Dream. He was too busy trying to kill an Enderman. He only needed 3 more ender pearls and he would be able to go to the end.

“Speedrunning?” the only response Sapnap gets is a “mhm” before Dream concentrates again. Once the monster was defeated, he looked back to read two donations he had missed earlier.

While that, Sapnap sits back while arguing with George something stupid. It was always something stupid.

“I’m gonna open your stream, give me a sec, Dream” Sapnap says a couple minutes later, and adds: “George are you also streaming?”

“No. Even though I’ve been trying to convince Dream to do something else for the past 10 minutes.” Dream can hear him sighting.

Dream laughs as he cleans his inventory, throwing unnecessary blocks into the lava in front of his screen. “George, we’ll do something else soon, just let me beat the dragon. Again”

“C’mon Dream, your time is not even that good today” Sapnap joins the complaining, and George agrees: “Yeah Dream, you’ve been better”.

“Of course I’m not good today” he argues “No one can be good speedrunning with GeorgeNotFound chattering inside your head as if you’d care about anything he’s saying”. Sapnap starts laughing with a long _“ouch!”_ , while George keeps himself quiet.

Some seconds go by until he disconnects.

“Oh, c’mon now” Dream says laughing, but he’s starting to regret it.

“Oh, you fucked up” Sapnap informs the obvious “You should say sorry”.

“He knows I wasn’t being serious” Dream sights. “But now you’re making me feel guilty, thank you for that, Sap”

“You are very welcome” he replies sarcastically, and Dream is able to _see_ his smile just by his voice tone through the headphone.

When he finally jumped into the stronghold’s portal, George joins again the call. Neither of Sapnap nor Dream were able to say anything before George starts: “So as you guys seem to hate George, he’s not here anymore. Now the one who’s speaking here is his cousin _Diego_ , so nice to meet y’all, I’m Diego Santana.”

One, two, three seconds of silence, until: “Wait… what?” Sapnap asks shocked while Dream and George start to laugh.

“I’m Diego.” George says again apparently holding his breath, trying his best not to cackle. “Santana. Diego Santana. I’m George’s cousin, from Mexico”

Sapnap laughs intensely, not even trying to hide. “Wow there’s really a long distance from England to Mexico, when did you arrived in George’s house?”

“Couple days ago,” George replies, trying to do a different accent that would be more acceptable. “George just left; he said his _boyfriend_ was upsetting him, so he went for a walk, I think. I didn’t know he was gay, but, well, let’s not judge, right?”

Dream and Sapnap continue laughing, and the chat is pretty much just freaking out about how George called Dream his boyfriend.

“Well, can you tell George something when he comes back?” Dream asks as they all calm down. “Yeah, sure, what?” George replies. “Oh, just tell him I didn’t mean it. And that I actually love listening to him, even if I don’t care about what he’s talking about.” He laughs “Oh, and don’t forget to say my name, Dream said all this ok?”

“Ok, I just think I’ll forget all that, I have terrible memory. Just a second, I’ll get him back”.

Dream agrees, as he gets back all his attention to the game, where he just got attacked by the dragon, and must do an MLG water. He succeeds and keeps trying to beat it.

A couple seconds later, George is back.

“Hey, Diego said Dream has something to tell me?” His voice is disgusted, and he pretends to sights. “Yeah, yeah, now you apologize to him, Dream” Sapnap says.

“Yeah George, I’m so sorry, I didn’t meant to make you sad, you know I _love_ talking to you” Dream had put some extra sarcasm in the word ‘love’ simply because he knew it’d make him roll his eyes. Ok, to be honest, the whole sentence had sarcasm, but you know how he is, he loves to make George annoyed. Even though he was really feeling guilty at some point.

And yet, he really likes listening to George anyway.

The good part was that George didn’t really care about it. He just grumbles a soft “Ok, never mind” and they both had moved on. But Dream knew that this little scene would be all over twitter in the next day. Well, theoretically this day, it was already past midnight.

They keep talking about some random topics until Dream finally beats the dragon, and the three get in a new world to basically do nothing but watch George and Sapnap constantly killing each other.

About 30 minutes later, Dream was nearly ending his stream when he hears the noise of a new donation. He read it out loud. “Jenny0456 donated $26,66. Hey Dream, just wanted you to know that today I finally asked my friend out, and now we’re finally dating. And to end the best day of my life we’ve just been cuddling while listening to you three, so thank you for making our night better. Also, can you say ‘bi rights’?”

When he was about to respond, he hears Sapnap screaming, while hitting George, who was pretty quiet. Dream ignored.

“Hello Jenny. Yeah, of course, _bi rights_. And also, thank you so much for making me feel more single than I’m already am.” He adds sarcastically. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for both of you, but I’m just thinking how long will take for my major crush to notice me.” His voice is low, as if he were telling a secret. In reality he was just teasing George.

He stares at the chat for some seconds, seeing some messages as “weren’t George already your valentine?” or “ASK HIM OUT!!!” and he tried not to laugh, waiting for George’s reaction, who was still quiet.

“Ay George, if I were you, I’d take the hint” Sapnap laughs, and quickly adds in a whisper “I think he’s talking about you”

“What do you mean waiting your crush to notice you, Dream? Who wouldn’t love to date you?” George finally says, and Dreams imagines him trying to hide a little smile with his hand.

“I don’t know, he doesn’t like me back. At least I don’t think he does.” Dream answers, speaking low, trying not to let them notice him laughing quietly. He made his best to fake a sadness.

Dream looks at his screen, and a new donation appears on the screen. This time, he doesn’t read it out loud.

“Dream, pleaseeee ask him to be your valentine!!! If you do, I’ll convince my mother to donate 50 dollars, pleaseeeeeeeee you need to ask him out, DO IT FOR THE GAYS”

Dream mutes himself for his friends so he can talk to chat. Neither of them were watching it anymore.

“Do y’all really want me to ask him out?” He laughs at himself, closing the game. He was about to end the stream, but the chat was subtly full of ‘yes’s, so he had to do it. Most of them were even in caps lock. It looked like they were screaming at him. “Ok, so you have to tell me how I’m gonna do it. I can’t just say ‘oh, hey George, how about you becoming my valentine, weren’t that be cool?’ or something like that” he laughs “It needs to be special”

The chat laughs and he rolls his eyes seeing some people spamming that it’s cute the way he wants to be romantic with his soulmate or some kind of shit like that.

“Guys you’re not helping!” He screams “ok, I’ll just ignore and not ask him, then…”

The chat is now angry, probably screaming with dream at the same time they scream with each other. “I need ideas! C’mon are y’all as stupid as I am?!”

To be honest Dream wasn’t really planning to ‘ask George to be his valentine’ but he thought it’d be funny to joke with his chat about that. But now, he’s seriously thinking about asking it just to make his fans happy. And he really wanted to see George’s reaction, even if he had absolutely sure he’d just say something like ‘nah, Dream, I don’t think so…’ and end the conversation there.

He scrolls his eyes through the comments, trying to find something useful. “Send him a letter” he read it out loud. “Well, I don’t think it’d be a great idea, it’d take some weeks for it to get to England, and we wouldn’t have his reaction recorded, so no”. A feel more seconds go by, until he reaches another one: “Just say it” he thinks “Ugh, but I wanted it to be special so we can get a good reaction”.

A new donation come into his screen. It says, “Just google it, I have no idea”. And that’s exactly what he does.

He’s now recording his computer screen, which is on google, and he types “how to ask someone out” and clicks enter. The chat is most likely just laughing, but Dream chooses to ignore it. He passes his eyes through the page, swearing at himself as he notices that most of the ways are for real couples that can go out for a real date, and not two stupid boys that have an ocean between them.

After some minutes, with no idea of what he’s going to do, he chooses to end the livestream, claiming that he’d think about asking George out or not. When he’s officially offline on twitch, he continues looking on google for some ideas.

And that’s when he sees “Try to make it special: write it on sand or snow” and Dream has an idea.

He joins again the call with Sapnap and George, that were (as always) trying to kill themselves, but for some reason George is now protecting a ‘special cow’ that apparently is called Esma.

Dream say a couple words trying not to laugh and gets on gamemode before just flying away. George and Sapnap complain, but they don’t really care that much. Soon they’re back to whatever the fuck they were doing. Dream flies through the game until he could find a desert or a snow biome big enough.

When he does it, he founds a really big area with snow. It was literally just perfect.

He writes with big, squared words on the ground “Gogy will you be my valentine?” and he even has to mute himself to stop laughing. He breaks some trees on that zone to make it more acceptable and when he’s ready, he unmutes himself.

“Hey George” he says serious and gets a “yeah?” in response. Dream continues “Please can you TP to me?”

“Why?” George asks and he snorts. “Just do it, George, I gotta show you something”.

“Ugh, fine” he says.

Dream is behind a tree, so from he is, he can’t see anything he’s done. George appears in front of him. He looks at him through the screen. “Ok, now what?”

Dream types so George could also be in gamemode and he’s finally also able to fly.

“Follow” he says simply, and gets up in the sky, George right behind of him.

When he finally sees the big letters written in dark blocks that contrasts with the light snow, the first thing he does is to laugh intensely, while Sapnap - who has no idea about what’s actually happening - asks uneasily what the frick was George laughing about.

Dream flies around until he stops right in front of George’s blocky face. He’s also laughing but he wants to know the answer.

“Shit Dream you’re not online anymore, I don’t know what’s happening, can someone light me here?!” Sapnap almost screams, and Dream doesn’t say nothing.

Sapnap also teleports to Dream, but since he’s still flying, he falls and dies from the damage. That really doesn’t help George to calm down.

“Geooorge…” Dream says, allonging the ‘o’ of the word, getting closed and closer of his character in game. He’s still occupied laughing to say anything.

Sapnap comes back, this time finally on gamemode so he can fly and see what’s written there. His reaction is not different than George’s.

“George say something!” Dream is impatient and wants to know his answer. He knows it’ll be a ‘no’ so he’s preparing himself to do a scene about being alone forever and never finding real love. He already knows what he’ll do: he’ll throw his water bottle on the floor and scream ‘ALL AROUND ME ARE FAMILIAR FACES’ which will, probably, cause them more laughs.

It was a great plan.

Unfortunately, it didn’t work as planned.

What he didn’t expect was George asking him an honest question instead of just saying yes or no.

“Why you’re asking me that, Dream?”

Dream pauses to think. “Do you want the sincere answer or the one I practiced only for this moment?”

“Both” he says finally, starting to hit Dream on the game and he sights.

“Ok, so the honest one is ‘cause this one fan told me to.” He laughs. “In my defense it was 50 dollars.” Sapnap laughs and adds “fair enough”.

“Ok, and the practiced one, Dream?” George asks curious.

“The practiced one is that one donation made me jealous because she had a girlfriend and I got nobody, and then I decided to ask my major crush out” Dream says, obviously adding enough amount of sarcasm on ‘major crush’.

“George, you need to say yes” Sapnap begs. “Like, please, imagine how cute would it be! Like for real, say yes, say yes, say yes!”

“Hm…” George grumbles, probably thinking about it, which is already something since Dream thought he would just say ‘no’ in the first opportunity. “What do I earn with that? What’s the difference of that in my life?”

Dream has to calm himself so he wouldn’t hit a wall.

“The difference George,” Dream starts “are several!” Sapnap snorts and makes a guttural sound that really cannot be described. “Actually, there are so many differences about dating me that I can’t even choose where to begin”

Dream can’t think about anything.

“Like what, Dream?”

“Uhm…” he tries to think. There are not that many rewards about being with him. In fact, he can’t really make much difference in someone else’s life. There’s really not a good part about dating him. “Well, one of many things is the fact that you could finally tell that one stupid aunt of yours that you’re finally dating someone, and she’ll stop complaining about you being single forever. Ans that’s really a big of an advance”

“Yeah, she’s homophobic” he says simply. “Don’t think it’ll work, not while you’re a man”

Dream is completely shocked. What should he say? ‘I’m sorry that you have an asshole relative’.

“Oh” is the choosing answer.

But then George starts laughing. “I’m playing with you; I don’t really think she’s homophobic”

“That’s good right?” Sapnap asks confused.

“Of course that’s good, Sapnap” George says, and then Dream adds “Yeah that´s good, because otherwise I’d have to plan murderer, you know? And I really don’t feel like having to plan a whole murderer. It takes time”

“And your too lazy to do it” Sapnap adds. “And I’m too lazy to do it, yeah” he agrees, and the three are momently silence.

“So, Dream, that’s literally all you can offer?”

“Oh no, I have plenty more reasons” he says “for example, you finally have someone to send your naught messages to. I do think that’s a good reason for you to date me, huh?”

“Oh, please I’ll leave you two alone” Sapnap complains and they laugh.

“But more than that,” Dream continues “of course, there’s all that bullshit about loving someone and stuff. You could finally fall in love, you know” the sentence is filled with irony, but it makes both of them laugh. “But yet there’s another big reason: because you’ll be dating the best Minecraft player in the world! How cool is that?”

“You wish, Clay” is his answer.

“So…” Sapnap starts after some seconds in silence. No one speaks, so he continues. “George? What’s your final answer?”

Dream agrees “Yeah I love to be ignored.” He pauses to look at the time: 3 am. He don’t have all night. “Geoooorge, please can you tell me your ‘no’ right away so I can make my scene? Please? I’ve been practicing, and I really would love if you’d help me telling-”

“Yes.” George says quickly. In only one breath. “Yes, Dream, I’ll be your valentine.”

Both Dream and Sapnap didn’t have a reaction. So, they just stayed silence.

“Hello?” George tried.

“You’re being serious?” Dream asks, and George make a “mhm” in agreement, but after some seconds when he notices Dream’s reaction, he adds “I’m being as serious as you are. Are you still in it?”

Dream seems to wake up.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m here, and I’m in.” he laughs. “Jesus, I can’t even believe I’M NOT SINGLE ANYMORE”

Sapnap starts laughing hard saying that they were crazy, which was true.

George laughs “But if you break my heart,” he says, “I’ll break yours”.

“Deal” Dream settles it back.

The thing is that all of them know that it’s a joke. Even though they were theoretically dating, it wasn’t true. Dream and George were two straight boys, anyway. But it was funny. Why not date your best friend? What could go wrong?

Well, thinking about it in this way, there’s really a lot that could go wrong. But they weren’t thinking about any of that, why’d they? They were just being irresponsible children together, as they always were.

“You know what that means, George?” Dream asks as he remembers something. George makes a noise from the bottom of his throat, as if he is thinking intensely. Something that, in Dream’s perspective, he doesn’t really used to do.

“Besides the fact that I’m now dating you? No, what?”

“It means,” Dream starts, a smile on his face, almost lightning the hot and dark room around him. “that you’ll have to say ‘I love you’ back to me every time I say it to you”.

He groans in protest.

“If you even think about making this a big deal or telling something about it on stream, I’m breaking up with you, you’re already warned” he says serious, but Dream has sure he’s smiling as well. When he didn’t get an answer back, he adds “And I’m being serious!”

“Yeah, yeah, I know you are _sweetheart_ ” Sapnap explodes with Dream’s use of words and starts hitting George skin on the game.

“Ok, I give up.” George sights. “Goodnight Dream.”

“Bye babe!” Dream yells back thanking right after the soundproof walls. It’d probably be weird if some neighbor could listen to him screaming ‘bye babe’ at 3 am on a Thursday.

And then George disconnects.

“Did you have any idea this would happened?” Sapnap asks, taking place in all of Dream’s screen.

“No, none,” he’s being honest. “I thought he’d simply say ‘oh, nah Dream, I don’t think it’s a good idea’ and then I’d pretend to call my mom saying something like ‘yeah, he broke up with me’” Dream sighs. “He ruined all my plans”.

“Well, look for the bright side,” Sapnap tries laughing, and Dream hears him eating something “You’re not single anymore”.

“That’s not how it works, Sap” he argues, leaving the Minecraft world, starting to get ready to sleep, or at least try to.

“That’s literally how it works, Dream.” Sapnap’s voice seems a little tired, but Dream ignores, making a mental note to ask him later if he’s sleeping well. “Listen, you asked him to be your valentine. He said yes. You’re dating. Do not deny”

“Yeah, but you do understand that I don’t have feelings for him. And he also doesn’t have feelings for me. It’s all a joke. We’re not dating for real”

“First of all: you can’t make sure he doesn’t have feelings for you. Even if you think he’s straight, you can’t just assume it, you’re not on his head after all. Even though I also think he’s not secretly in love with you” he laughs, and Dream rolls his eyes. “Second of all: yeah, you both don’t feel nothing, but that doesn’t mean you’re not dating.” Dream can _listen_ his smile “Because you are. And even if you don’t feel anything, that’s your problem. You’re still dating him. You better don’t cheat on him huh?”

“Yeah, yeah, Sap, I’ll be faithful” he answers it sarcastically, and hears Sapnap yawning. “You should go to sleep”

“I know” he replies, “And so should you.”

Dream laughs “I’m literally doing my bed. Gotta go now, is that ok, Nick?”

He knew he didn’t like Dream to call him Nick.

“Don’t call me that” he growls, but then softs his voice “Good night, _Clay_ ”

He smiles back to the empty wall. “Night”

“Oh, and don’t forget to check Twitter before you sleep” he advises him “Probably nothing that important, they’re just probably freaking out, but it’s cool to see what they’re thinking. And you didn’t even tell them that you guys are dating, imagine when you do it.

“It’s not for real Sapnap!” he listens to his laugh and closes his eye. He’s really tired. “We’re not really dating!”

“Yeah, you’ll tell me that when I’m listening to you both moaning in the room next to mi-”

Dream hangs up and sights.

He sits on his bed and grabs his phone on the desk. It has a lot of Discord messages, but he ignores most of them. He prefers to go right to Twitter, to see how much damage he’s caused.

All his timeline was full of “DNF IS SO REAL” and “George really gave it all away” and even “Please I want Diego Santana to be back soon, he looks fun”.

He goes to his profile and writes a new twitte:

_“It finally happened; it was about time”._

He wasn’t going to waste the opportunity to mess with George

He stares as the numbers start to get higher and higher. He read some of the first replies, some people already making conspiracies about Dream asking George out.

And that was when he got a new notification: GeorgeNotFound twitted.

_“Update: we’re dating”_

Right after, George replies to his own twitte.

_“And I don’t even know why”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm letting clear that if one of the characters come to public to say they don't like this kind of story, I will be deleting this. Also, take it easy with me: it's my first story and English isn't my first language.


	2. 'love <3'

Dream's vision blurs when it is turned away from the screen that has overheated his eyes for the past few hours. His gaze hovers in the window next to his setup. Just a thin layer of glass dividing him from the outside world. It looks weird how the street is deserted at times when no one pays attention to it.

The boys’ voices who were continuously wheezing in his ears were silent for a few seconds, possibly the first in the entire night.

Dream contemplates whether to open the window or not. There were many cons and not so many pros. The fact that if he screamed, he’d interrupt the neighbors' sleep and the air conditioning factor convinced him that the right thing would, in fact, be to keep it closed.

The past three days had been funny: he was dating, after all.

His afternoons and nights were continually summing up to Dream making dirty jokes or gooey statements and receiving sarcastic comments from George in return.

But somehow, it was working. He has no idea _how_. But it is definitely working.

I mean, he and George are longtime friends, it wouldn't be a fake dating that would mess up everything. But it remains funny. Even more so when Dream embarrasses George in front of the others.

But never while live. That was the deal. Say nothing in front of thousands of witnesses.

It was just funny how Dream seemed constantly trying to reinforce that it would be a good idea, when in reality it obviously wasn't.

Sapnap's voice echoing through his ears brought him back to reality: 4 boys on discord 2 a.m.

"Okay guys, I'm leaving now, good night" Sapnap yawns. He had just finished his stream. Bad, which was also on the channel, agrees "Yes, I have to go too, have fun you two."

The two log off, one after the other, leaving George and Dream alone on top of one of Dream Smp's highest mountain.

Dream checks who is online: only the two in the entire world.

"So ..." George starts, and his voice breaks, making Dream smile. His avatar is running in circles around Dream, placing some brick blocks around him. "What now?"

"You're not live, are you?" Dream asks and receives a simple murmured “Nop” as an answer.

"So, my dear _boyfriend_ , I don’t know what we could do now" Dream laughs as George sighs heavily on the other end of the call. "What's wrong, George?"

" _You._ You are the only wrong in my whole life, Dream"

"Ah, George if you don't want to be my boyfriend, the only thing you have to say is 'I want to break up'. It's simple. But until then, _boyfriend_ , you're stuck with me”

"This is not a very heterosexual attitude of you," he mumbles, drawing another laugh from Dream.

“George, we're literally two men dating, do you want anything gayer than that?”

"I think" he coughs. “That maybe we should get out of this call line. Let's go to a line where someone like Tommy can't come in at any moment. We’re literally on the general one.”

A few seconds pass and Dream joins George in a new private Discord room.

"Better now, _sweetheart_?" Dream makes fun of George, and he can imagine him rolling his eyes an ocean away. "Didn't you want people like Tommy to hear you say you're gay?"

"Dream, enough" he says, but Dream knows he is actually laughing. "If you call me any of those names like sweetheart again, I will break up with you."

Dream laughs and inside the game he exchanges the bread in his hand for his pick to break the blocks that George had trapped him in. He gets out of there quickly and starts running after George who was more than 100 blocks away.

"Do you know what's amazing now, George?" he asks and receives no response, but continues, anyway “It's just that you have something to use against me. If you want me to do something, I either do it or you break up with me”

“That’s actually pretty useful, to be honest” Dream hears his voice saying low, almost as if he was right beside of him in that room. He continues. "I know you would _never_ forgive yourself if you did something that would cause me to break up with you permanently."

"Yes, _sweetheart_ " Dream says and shortly afterwards starts to laugh at George's silence.

His avatar in the game that until then ran as far away from Dream as possible, paused completely. He faces nothing, until Dream comes close enough to position himself in front of him. George is still silent on the other end of the call.

"Dream" his voice grows little by little. "I want to break up with you" he says seriously, and Dream bursts out laughing.

"You cannot do that!" he pretends a desperate voice. He was a good actor in one way or another "You can't leave me, not without any justification, George!"

“It's not without justification!” his character in the game comes back to life and faces Dream head on.

George is on shift, coming slowly closer to Dream, until he stops an inch away.

"What are your justifications for ending our beautiful love story that it lasted less than 3 days?" Dream questions. George was getting closer and closer, until he stopped.

"To start with: because I don't like the nicknames-"

Dream interrupts him.

"You will have to get used to them. I won’t stop. Ever" he says satisfied. He turns away from George's character and jumps out to pick up an apple under a tree. "Nicknames are part of the package."

George hesitates.

"Ugh, okay, fine" he mumbles, “but if you _dare_ to say something like that on stream, I will not only kill you, but I'll personally go to Florida to kick you right in the middle of your face." He stops ahead of Dream and looks at him as if they are both really inside the video game. "You understood?"

"Got it, _babe_."

Dream tries to hold his smile while listening to George shouting something like “DREAM PLEASE STOP IT! IT’S WEIRD”

George curses himself soon after realizing that it was 6 am and the neighbors could probably hear him.

"Why is it weird, Gogy?" Dream asks laughing, trying to make him as angry as possible "We are dating, I have the right to call you babe."

"No, Dream!" he practically screams back, but not so loud this time. "It's weird because we've been friends for like 4 years and you calling me a babe is… it’s just weird!"

Dream laughs, with nothing to answer back. He starts jumping around George in the game, hitting him with the new apple in his hand.

George looks directly at Dream suddenly.

"Oh, I needed to tell you something that happened, you will not believe it"

Dream rolls his eyes when he realizes that he was trying to change the subject, but asks what had happened anyway. He's curious after all.

But in reality, George was not changing the subject at all.

"So, I was talking to my mom on the phone the day before yesterday, and she told me to call that my aunt, you know?"

"The homophobic one?"

“She´s not homophobic, Dream.”

"You were the one who said she was homophobic"

"Well I was joking, she’s not homophobic, she’s just really boring."

Dream chuckles into the darkness of his room, looking away from the screen that burns his retinas. "And what happened?"

"My mom convinced me to talk to her, so I called her yesterday." He sighs and lets out a laugh. "You were right, one of the first things she asked me was if I already had a new girlfriend, or something like that"

Dream closes his eyes to laugh, he can't believe it really happened.

"And what did you say?" George laughs before replying, "I said I didn't have a girlfriend".

"Which is not a lie..." Dream starts laughing, and he agrees. “Yeah, it’s not a lie, anyway. She just doesn't need to know the truth”.

Dream looks at the screen again. George was clearing the land, breaking some trees around them.

"And what is the truth, George?"

Dream didn’t give up easily, he wanted to know if George would admit to him that they were really dating. Dream. Clay, if you prefer. A boy who lives a sea away.

“You already know what´s the truth, Dream” he replies slowly.

It is true. He knew the truth. But he wants to hear George saying it.

“I don't think I know. What's the truth, George?” he tries to hide his smile from his voice tone.

He wails with a grunt, and his avatar stops right in front of Dream, hitting him once with the sword.

"The truth, Dream," he lets out angrily. "It's just that an American idiot named Clay _forced_ me to date him."

He smiles behind the screen. But it's not like George could see it.

"Hey, I’ve never forced anybody to date anyone" he says seriously, and turns to also break the tree beside him. "If you are dating me it is because _you_ want to"

"Yeah but," he hesitates. Dream has no idea what his argument would be. "Anyway"

Dream looks at the sky inside the game. The sun was starting to set.

"George, do you know what I need to do?" He doesn't give time for George to respond. “I need to change your phone contact. I’m thinking of putting ‘babe’ or something like that”

"Oh, don’t you dare." He simply says, but he can’t pretend to be angry, since he laughs shortly after the sentence is uttered.

George wouldn't admit it, but he’s also thinking that the whole dating story is a little bit funny. Just partially, you know.

"Why not?" Dream asks cheerfully. "I don't care, I'm going to put 'babe', whether you like it or not".

Dream gets up to pick up his phone from across the table, where it was charging. He goes directly to George's contact who was earlier saved as simply Gogy and changes it to 'babe'.

Dream laughs as he takes a screenshot and sends it to him on Snapchat.

A few seconds later he hears George mumbling and he knows the message has finally arrived. He smiles at nothing when he hears the protests on the other end of the call.

"You liked it?" he asks excitedly.

"Mhm, I _loved_ it Dream," he says full of sarcasm. "So magnificent that it is likely that I will burst with joy."

He watches George planting a small red flower at the feet of Dream's avatar.

"You need to change my contact too" Dream says as soon as he remembers. “You need to put something cute like ‘Love of my life’ or even, I don’t know, ‘my boy’.Something like that. I will leave this up to you”

"I'm not doing it" he says dryly. Without leaving openings or at least the possibility that he was going to do something as absurd as what Dream asked.

"Oh please, George!" he asks laughing, breaking the red flower in front of him, and planting it again on George's side. "I did it, you have to do it too"

“You did it because _you_ wanted to” he is unmoved. Dream can't tell if he's being serious or sarcastic just from his voice. He would need to see his face to make sure.

But Dream also doesn't have the courage to ask him to turn on his camera. Especially when himself didn’t even showed his face to George yet.

"I didn't do it because I wanted to, George" Dream says seriously.

"Oh yeah?" he asks rhetorically. Finally, he can hear a hint of laughter in his voice, which made Dream relax almost 1000x “Why did you do it then? I don't remember asking you to do that at any point during our 4 years of friendship-”

"You really are an idiot" this finally makes George burst out laughing, and Dream rejoices. And then he adds sarcastically: "I did it because _I love you"_

His smile almost tore his cheeks. He didn't know that pretending to be dating someone could be so funny.

"Er... Okay thank you, I really appreciate that you love me" he says, confusing the words and making the other one laugh.

“George! Say it back!” he screams.

“I won’t do it, Dream”

“But we’re dating now! You have to!”

“I don’t have to do anything, I’m a free man!” he argues “And besides, I don’t want to lie to you”

Dream moves away from the computer and takes his eyes elsewhere. Above his desk, in addition to several screens, a keyboard and a mouse, there are some drawings that he had received in his mailbox and had not yet kept properly.

He opens the window next to his computer, finally. He makes a mental note not to shout anymore, since he could no longer rely on the soundproof glass. The dawn wind hits him in the face, cooler than the hot June air. October was a really good month. One of his favorite months.

“You wouldn’t be lying if you tell me you love me, George” he says softly. His voice going with the sight that came in from his window. "You may not love me romantically, but that doesn't mean you don't love me." He looks at his screen again. A millisecond before George steps in front of his avatar again. "I at least don't lie when I say I love you, you know, don't you?"

Both spend a few seconds in silence. It is not something that Dream really likes.

"I know." He finally responds. He looks a little embarrassed.

“That’s good” is Dream’s answer. They stay that way for a while.

A few minutes later, George logs off the game, and as soon as Dream sees the notification, he does the same.

He hears George leaving the Discord call too, without even saying anything. Dream sights, and starts to turn off his computer, until he is completely alone in the pitch.

He doesn't blame George for hanging up on him. It was already 7 am in England, he needed to sleep.

Sometimes it was funny how the two of them had literally combined their sleep schedule so they could chat or play more. They go to sleep every day at almost the same time. Even though there was a 5-hour difference between the two. They were going to lie down at the same time.

He gropes his hand across his desk, looking for his cell phone with only the moonlight to guide him. As soon as he catches up with it, he realizes that he received a new message on Snapchat.

It was George's.

A photo with a caption.

It was a screenshot of Dream's contact saved on his cellphone. The name had been changed to ‘love <3’.

Below the photo, it had written ‘good night, dream’.

And he finally went to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, I'm letting clear that if one of the characters come to public to say they don't like this kind of story, I will be deleting this. Also, take it easy with me: it's my first story and English isn't my first language.


	3. Sleep, please

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter a clip is used that actually occurred in real life. I just want to make it clear that even though the clip is from May 2020, the story takes place in November. Enjoy :)

He shouldn't be _that_ tired.

Okay, it was late, but it wasn't late, _late_. He is used to sleep at 4 am, to be honest sometimes he didn't even sleep.

So why the fuck did he feel like he was going to pass out if he kept his eyes fixed for another second on the bright screen in front of him?

He needed to sleep. As soon as possible.

It didn't make sense, it really didn’t. Okay, he had indeed woken up earlier than usual that morning, but just that wasn’t enough to explain the momentary will that all his muscles had to simply die.

And to improve it, he was alone on a call with George. And nothing was really happening, so they were both very quiet. They literally spent the last 40 minutes fishing for a name tag.

Listening to George's low mutters and whispers to himself was not helping him at all in the arduous task of staying awake.

C’mon, it was almost 1 am. He should be energetic. He still needed to stay awake for _at least_ 2 hours.

He allows himself to be distracted for a few seconds. His eyes leave his main monitor until they land on the secondary, where a happy George explained in slow words and strong accent why it was extremely relevant that they had a name tag to name their dog with the name of a girl who had donated 45 pounds. Of course, the words he received through the stream were delayed from what he heard on the headset. And that’s why the live was mutated. It was only there for the image it provided.

Dream takes off his headset and gets up, going to the nearest switch, two steps away. The room is momentarily dark, before he turns on his LEDs in a dark shade of blue.

It's not like it's going to change for anyone but him, and anyway that yellowish light on his face was starting to make him dizzy.

When he finally sits down again and passes the headphone over his head, attaching some of it's wires, he hears George calling him: "Dream?"

He represses the urge to call him a 'babe'. That was how he had been calling him for the past week and a half. After the third time it happened, George got tired of telling Dream to stop, and simply accepted that from now on he’d just be addressed as babe. He's already got used to it.

But, of course, he was forbidden to call George that way when one of the two was live.

"Hey, hey, sorry" he says choking as soon as he hears George's call. "I had got up to turn off the light, I took off the headset."

“If you leave the computer on in the total darkness of your room, your vision will get worse” he simply says. “I’ve never even seen you, but I'm sure that when I do, you will be wearing horrible glasses, or something like that.”

"Shut up" he mumbles under his breath, smiling. "I am not in complete darkness." He sighs looking at the ribbon of light cracked on the ceiling. "And I already wear glasses," he adds.

Both were silent for a few seconds.

"Do you?"

"Mhm" he replies smiling. George's reaction to discovering something new about him was funny.

"Are you with them now?" he questions, and Dream grumbles.

Tiredness is making him a little confused.

"No, but I should" he decides to answer simply. "It's dark and I'm looking at a screen, I really should be wearing them."

"And why aren't you?" George's voice comes out distant, just after a grunt for not having caught anything more significant than a simple fish with his fishing rod.

“Because I don't like them” Dream replies “And ‘cause _I think_ I lost them.” But this is just a detail.

George lets out a loud laugh, but instead of causing the same thing in Dream, he simply takes his mouse to turn George's volume down a bit. He was really drowsy and loud laughter wouldn't help him with anything right now.

And then he gives in for the tiredness.

"Geooooorge" he says, dragging, his voice low, almost in a plea.

"Dreaaaaam" he replies. Dream takes his eyes to his live, and as soon as George is late saying 'Dream', he smiles.

"I'm going to sleep" he finally says, irreversibly. He knows exactly what that implies. It doesn't mean that he likes the idea.

George hesitates for a few quick seconds before answering. “Ok, well, then sleep for like an hour and then come back.”

Dream wanted to laugh at his naiveté in thinking that if he fell asleep, he would be able to wake up before noon tomorrow.

"I'm sleeping for at least 8 hours, okay?"

A few more seconds while he digests the new information: "But then we're getting out of sync again." Dream was almost certain that the phrase would have been followed by _'please do not sleep now so that I don't have to suffer to try to sleep and wake up in Florida’s time again'_ if they weren't live.

He knew how George suffered (yeah, that's the exact word) from the time zone. Both of them did. But it was George who kept them at the same time always. Keeping them both awake together and sleeping together. This was one of his many jobs.

And if Dream went to sleep now, he would ruin George's hard work that had impressively lasted 2 months this time.

But Dream chose to be sarcastic this time. "Why is that my fault?"

He hears George snorting at the other end of the line and smiles.

“Okay, well, I fished one, there’s two more. You have to stay until I end the stream. I’m fishing two more. If I don’t get the name tag-”

Dream interrupts him.

"Wait you’re ending the stream after this?" he asks, somehow impressed. Was George really finishing his stream so he could sleep at the same time as Dream? Not being sarcastic, but this was kind of dumb. “I- what? You’re ending it?”

Dream looks for his second screen just in time to see George's shy smile as he nods.

“I'm gonna end the stream” he agrees, casting the bait into the lake in front of the Community House for what would possibly be the last time. “Just for you, Dream”

He is speechless.

"Ok" is the answer he gives.

Let's be honest: it wasn't just two more attempts until George ended the stream. But either way, it happened 7 minutes later, which was 1 and a half hours before the time he normally would do it.

As soon as George finishes saying goodbye, Dream turns off the monitor in which until then he could see George waving to the camera.

And then they were alone again. 

"George, turn off your light" is how Dream breaks the silence. Even without being able to see George, he had a very consistent mental image of him leaning on the chair with his eyes closed, clear light illuminating the entire room. “Until then your stream was the biggest source of light in my entire room. Your lamp is very bright, and even though I can't see it anymore, it still bothers me.”

George produces a noise in the back of his throat that Dream prefers to interpret along with a roll of his eyes.

"There, Dream, lights off" he replies "Happy?"

"A lot, _babe_ " he says. His eyes were closed, and he was smiling at the bluish light that covered him entirely.

George didn't even bother with the nickname, he had already overcome the fact that he would be forever called like that by Dream.

"So..." George starts after a few seconds. Dream imitates it: "so...?"

George clears his throat.

"You really want to fuck with my synchronization, don't you?"

“First, _our_ synchronization” Dream corrects “Stop being selfish. Second, yeah, I will fuck with _our_ synchronization because otherwise I’ll just pass out of tiredness.”

"Can't you really stay awake for another two hours?" he asks sincerely. Dream felt bad about being sarcastic when George's reasons are genuine.

"I really don't think so" he says slowly, stopping to yawn, and it wasn't even on purpose. "Seriously, I'm sorry, but I'm literally _dead_."

"Ok" he simply says. Dream can hear him thinking. “Let's do it like this, Dream: we keep talking until you literally can't stay awake anymore. Even if you sleep while I'm still here, okay? I'll try to keep you awake for a little longer.”

Dream smiles and rolls his eyes.

"Babe I won't be able to sleep in an uncomfortable position like I am on this chair right now," he argues, but it's true. His back is already aching from sitting so long. He needed a bed.

George laughs under his breath “Go to your bed then, dickhead. Nobody is stopping you.”

"No one is stopping me, just the wire on my headphone that connects it to the computer," he says sarcastically, but his eyes remain closed and calm. His voice is so low it could be a whisper. He could say he's almost sleeping.

"Wait" George says before leaving the call. And so, Dream is alone on the Discord channel.

He doesn't even bother to move, he knew what would happen.

As expected, a few seconds later, his phone began to vibrate on his bed.

Dream grunts as he gets up and takes off his headset to attach it to his cell phone this time. As soon as his finger slides across the screen where he says ‘pick up’, George speaks against his ears “Problem solved.”

Dream just sighs as he goes to his desk to properly turn off all appliances. And in the meantime, he listened to the incessant noise of George brushing his teeth.

Dream heads almost instantly to his bed. He doesn't even take the quilt out of there. He throws himself at it, just being careful not to hit Patches in the process.

"Where are you?" George asks as soon as the bathroom cabinet is closed.

“In bed” he murmurs in reply “What more do you wanna know? My card password?”

George sighs. "Idiot"

A few seconds pass in silence before Dream makes a revelation.

"George" he calls him, and just receives a sleepy ''hm", which was enough for him to continue "I can't sleep with a headset, it's awful, I can't lie on my side” he sighs “It won't work”.

“Take the it off, then” George responds quickly, as if it were the simplest thing in all eternity. Which, in a way, kind of is.

“But you are not used to my voice other than in this headset. It will be different,” he replies, the words coming out lower and lower and clumsier as sleep catches up with him faster and faster.

George grumbles in response. "Oh, unless there is someone _very important_ in your house who can't hear our conversation, just take the fucking headset off"

Dream smiles at himself. "You are so sweet, babe." George mumbles before answering properly, "I know, I know, now do it."

Dream finally does what he says, leaving the device above the desk. He lies on his side and now lets his phone on speaker right in front of his face, which sank into the thick pillow. "You know the walls are soundproof, right?" Dream asks.

"What?" George asks, and Dream contains the urge to shout for him to pay attention. "The walls." He tries again “They are soundproof. Even if there was someone here at home, they wouldn't listen to our conversation.”

“That’s cool” is the answer he gets. One way or another, it seems that George also seems to be quite tired. "Since no one would hear anything, why don’t you scream, Dream?"

"Haven't you heard me screaming like, I don't know, a trillion times?" he questions, and George makes a noise of agreement. "Then why would I scream again?"

"Why wouldn’t you, Dream? Stop being boring". Dream tries not to roll his eyes or smile. “George, _babe_ , I don’t want to scream. If you really want someone to scream, why don't you?

He grumbles but does not answer the question. Some time passes before he says anything again. "Why don't you want to scream, Dream, _love of my entire life_?"

Dream ignores the sarcasm. “I like the silence.”

Dream feels that the answer 'Because I'm tired and I want to sleep’ would be too simple for that moment. And, perhaps, he could bring a little more complexity to the conversation. He is afraid that George had fallen asleep when he doesn't answer. But after some longs seconds in total silence, he corrects himself.

"Actually, no, I don't like the silence." He says, for sure now.

"Why not?" George's voice comes only seconds later, being guided by sleep.

"Silence can be a devastating sound."

When Dream finally came to the conclusion that George was sleeping, he actually replies. "And that is why I often avoid it."

Dream turns on the bed to face the ceiling. He thinks about it. "It's not because I hate silence that I avoid it," he says sincerely. "Sometimes it is necessary".

"Like when?" this time George's question came quickly. Dream had to think of an answer for a few seconds, however: "When you need to stop and listen to your own head."

George grumbles in reply "My head is too full, if I keep silent, everything will come out at the same time and I won't be able to hear anything anything. Wouldn't be usefull."

Dream shrugs. For a second he forgets that George can't see him "So I guess you should just stay longer in silence," he murmurs "You know, give them all time to get out calmly."

The seconds were long until he received an answer.

"But what if I don't like to listen?"

Dream opens a smile. "Nobody does. That is why silence is a devastating sound. But sometimes it really is necessary.”

And that's it. The room is set in a completely silent blue gloom. And if he closed his eyes and concentrated, he could put their conversation into practice. He could hear his own thoughts. Most of them are not desirable.

It was strange to have conversations like this with George. Because, yes, he was still George, but Dream had never known that side of him; The side where before sleeping he thinks about how he doesn't like to hear his own feelings.

It was almost like... someone new.

Someone different. Definitely different.

But different in a good way, he thinks.

He likes it, though. He really does.

And while Dream listened to his thoughts that screamed in agony to try to understand who this George was and who he was talking to, he highlights a real voice from among the waterfalls of voices from his own head.

George, on the phone, had finally said something else.

"Dream, I don't want to hear the silence. I really don’t." he sound slightly desperated.

Dream sighs deeply, sleep already taking him to another reality when he speaks. "No problem, I can hear it with you."

And what Dream did not hear that night, almost 10 minutes later, was George finally answering. He knew that Dream was already asleep. And he was about to hang up. Before that, however, he mumbles: “what the fuck is this, Dream? You can’t just-” followed by a long sigh, and an international call ended.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, I'm letting clear that if one of the characters come to public to say they don't like this kind of story, I will be deleting this. Also, take it easy with me: it's my first story and English isn't my first language.


	4. I always do

Dream is scrolling through Twitter. Nothing unusual, he may say.

He wasn’t in a mood to play today, and don’t even start with streaming. He had actually opened the Twitch app on his phone to see who was live: no one with whom he was remarkably familiar.

He had answered some fans, liked some fanarts, and even tagged George in a post that said something about two content creators saying that they are together sometime in the near future. Nothing much. Just an ordinary Monday in early November.

He wondered if he was going to order a pizza or hamburger. His food could definitely be better, but who cares.

And it was in the midst of his greatest life indecision, that he received a notification from Sapnap.

‘Join discord’

Dream sighs before settling on the bed itself. He thinks of a way to deny it without making him upset.

‘Sorry man, I don’t feel like playing’

He leaves his phone on the bed and gets up to check what's in the fridge. However, as soon as he would pass through the door, it beeps and its screen lights up.

He goes over to the object and checks Sap's new message: ‘Nobody is live, and the people are just chatting’ followed by the next ‘Just fucking get in’

He sighs, fitting the headset to the sound input on his phone. He was sure he wouldn't be staying that long, so he didn't even bother to turn on the computer.

As soon as he joins the call, he hears Karl and Quackity discussing something like they’d die if they didn’t win the contention, while Tommy laughs outrageously.

He puts the phone in his pocket, and heads towards the kitchen. He meets Patches halfway through and bends down slowly to give her a little affection. He tries not to speak to her too loudly, just in whispers, so that others on the call couldn’t hear him.

As soon as he gets up again, the call goes on in a momentary silence as George slowly stops laughing. Dream takes the initiative to say something: "Hello?" He clears his throat. "What the fuck were you arguing?"

Quackity stops laughing completely with Tommy, and Dream hears George sigh before Sapnap mumbles "Please don't make them start again..."

"THAT'S BECAUSE KARL IS AN IDIOT!" Quackity starts, and Karl lets out a laugh. "Don't start with all this bullshit, you were the one who said the pink sheep had to stay with the pigs!"

Dream looks scandalized at his kitchen, trying at the same time to remember what he needed to do and understand what kind of fight that was. "Um, ok, that didn't answer my question at all."

"Dream, they are fighting because Karl was playing in survival until he found a pink sheep and Quackity said that it needed to be with the pigs because of its color" George replies quickly, before Tommy adds "And for some reason it would be called the _Matriarch Pig”._

They all keep silent for a few seconds before Dream says something: "Why... why the fuck are you like this?" making Tommy and Quackity laugh.

“Anyway, Dream” Sapnap starts, with a laugh in his voice “What are you doing?”

"Right now?" he asks, as he goes to the kitchen counter. He receives a murmured "Mhm", so he replies: "Right now I'm taking a bowl of cereal with milk", which leads Tommy to say " _So_ American"

Sapnap laughs, and George adds "Shut up, I also eat cereal with milk"

Dream smiles as he drops the milk back into the fridge. He picks up the bowl and starts heading towards his room again.

“Ah, shut up GeorgeNotFound” Tommy replies, the height of his voice making Dream slightly lower the volume of his device “We already know that you will forever defend your little _boyfriend_ ”

Dream corrects Tommy mentally: his _big_ boyfriend. One way or another, Dream is taller.

And the funny thing is that Tommy didn't know that they were _actually_ dating.

Normally George would respond with a simple "Fuck off" or something variable, but what he did this time was different.

"Hm... Alright, ok, that's the reason I date him anyway" He says, and incredibly, there was not a hint of sarcasm "But if he doesn't defend me afterwards, I'll break up with him anyway, he knows that."

"Fuck, now I'm going to have to defend him from _everything_ " Dream replies smiling, implying that he didn't want them to break up.

Everyone is completely silent until Dream, George and Sapnap start laughing ceaselessly.

"I- what?" Tommy asks laughing, looking scared "Okay, okay, I'm going to go-"

Dream laughs again, and he smiles when he hears George's laughter on the call, merging with another 5 others. He finally reaches his room, the cereal already half eaten. He sits on the chair while making small remarks in his friends' animated conversations.

When they suggest playing Bedwars, Dream finally gives up and sets to turn on his computer, saying that they could start without him.

While he waited for the application to load on his screen, he decided to take his cell phone out of his pocket again so that he could finally open Discord on his computer.

However, as soon as the screen lights up, he notices a message 4 minutes ago from George. When he opens it, it says _'I left the call for three minutes to get water and I got completely lost in the conversation'._

He laughs softly and answers _'I’ve never gotten out and I still don't understand what's going on'._

He turns off the screen, and migrates to the computer, placing the phone against the table in front of him. He enters the server and jumps around while waiting for his friends to finish the game in which they already participated.

And this is when he hears his phone vibrating again. When he reaches the screen, he sees a new message from George.

 _‘I just died :(‘_ he sent it, and Dream lets out a laugh. The others on the call don’t understand why he laughs, but George knows, and it makes him laugh too. _‘Stop laughing, idiot,’_ he texts next.

 _‘Did they destroy your bed?’_ Dream asks and overhears George in the call saying ‘mhm’.

Karl, who was dead George's duo, finally lost 2v1 against the red team. As he was the last one in the call that was still alive, they all restart the game, this time with Dream.

He and George pair up, and it was hilarious the way they both died in the first few minutes, making them swear at each other, and then laugh.

While Dream flew over the islands like a ghost, seeing Sapnap and Quackity against two people from the yellow team, he received another message.

 _'Say potato'_ George sends him, which honestly doesn't make any sense, but it makes him laugh in the same way. George on the call laughs softly as Tommy lets out a slightly feminine cry.

"What?" Dream says out loud, and George sends another message: _‘just say potato for fuck’s sake’_

Dream laughs for a few seconds before saying loud and clear, almost like a little cry “Potato!”

George starts to laugh, but the others don't even seem to notice. Sapnap continually complained about the fact that he was killed by a member of the green island, and the others were just shouting at each other.

Dream decides to join the game and type back: ‘ _the next round u gotta say broccoli’_

He hears George laughing softly, but he answers, ‘ _give me a sec’._

Soon, they restart the game, and Dream is again on a blue island with George. He starts to buy blocks to cover their bed while George is just worried about their weapons. As soon as Karl enters their island, Dream yells to George to help him, and so he does.

The two go after Karl, who impressively manages to knock George off the path made from his base to theirs.

However, as he falls, George shouts “OH MY FUCKING BROCCOLI!” making Dream let out a fun laugh.

When he respawns, Dream asks softly on the call: "What´s next?", And after a few thoughtful seconds, George whispers in response: "Squirrel". The others don't notice, just too occupied with the game.

Dream tries to hold back a laugh and says, trying to disguise "Come on, George, let's go to the center", and so they do.

When a person from the yellow island goes to their island with the intention of taking George down, Dream appears behind him and shouts "Fuck off squirrel!" making George busts in laughter.

"What the fuck is going on?" Quackity asks, but Dream and George completely ignore, just laughing in their own bubble. Until Tommy got close enough to destroy their bed.

Time passed, and with it the games also did. They don’t even notice when they loose for the eighth consecutive time. They all switched teams several times, changed the number of players on each island, and even played some parkour.

But in the meantime, George and Dream were constantly sending each other completely random words like ‘lettuce’ or ‘zucchini’ to scream at opportune times.

The other boys don't seem to understand the fun in the word "Collywobbles", but after a completely unexpected fit of laughter from George, they must have realized that something else was going on.

Because they were both completely oblivious to the others wondering what the hell was going on, they just wanted to be able to laugh at the word "pineapple" all they want. The words began to be more and more silly, but it elicited even more genuine reactions from both.

But it was when Dream let out one of his biggest wheezes after hearing George say “Suck my fucking tomato” with his characteristic accent on the word 'tomato', that Sapnap finally lost his temper and asked what was going on.

Dream refuses to explain what had just happened, partly because, well, he had no idea what exactly happened. He just knew it was funny.

And that was when the doorbell rang downstairs. Dream rolls his eyes before muttering "I have to get my food, give me a second" and get up to answer the delivery guy.

On the way he grabs one of his masks (after all, _pandemic_ ) so he can get his snack, which, amazingly, was not a simple pepperoni pizza.

The delivery man passes him the plastic bowl from which he could see a large quantity of sushi that he had ordered about 30 minutes earlier.

The man at the door smiles at him before turning around and heading back to his bike.

Dream passes by the kitchen to reach a plate, and throws the mask against the table surface, he would remember to put it away later.

When he positions the headphones over his ears again, he hears everyone laughing, except for Tommy who had already left for some reason.

“Did I...” Dream he tries, but waits a little longer until all of them could calm down “Did I miss something?”

"No, just Karl showing Sapnap all his pick up lines" Quackity replies with a hint of laughter, making George laugh and add "Will we have another official couple here?!"

Dream smiles and sits down comfortably, saying "George, I like the way you say _another_ , as if you already admitted that we're actually dating."

George spends two seconds in silence before asking "But aren't we?"

Dream smiles, before answering “Mhm, yeah, we are” he sighs “We’re like that for what? 3 or 4 weeks? Something like that”.

"I have no idea" he replies sincerely "When did you ask me to be your valentine, _babe_?"

Ok, Dream didn't expect _that_.

It was already certain that he had called George 'babe' for over two weeks, but _George_ had never (Never!) called him that way before. Besides _, in front of other people_. When Dream called him a babe they were either alone or with just Sapnap.

But now he had just finished speaking not only in front of Sapnap, but also Karl and Quackity. And he wasn't even using sarcasm. What the fuck was going on?

Okay, so maybe Dream was making a big deal when in fact he had finally started to feel comfortable about the dating issue.

But that was a good thing, wasn't it?

Yes, he was almost sure it was.

The call is silent for a few moments before Karl coughs audibly "I... feel like I'm interrupting something...?"

Dream laughs quietly in an attempt to spread the strange atmosphere that remained in the call, but George was silent. Sapnap continues to try to remember the date on which Dream ended up asking him out, but Dream stopped paying attention when he received a message from George.

_'Did i do something wrong?'_

Dream feels an uncomfortable tightness in his chest _. 'No Im sorry. I just crashed because I didn't expect smt like that'._

A few more seconds: ‘ _I can stop if you want’_

“No” Dream responds it out loud quickly, cursing himself shortly afterwards, as he doesn't even know what he has just denied Sapnap. Dream continues to reply him in the messages anyway: ‘ _there’s no need, I like it.'_ after he sends it, he starts writing another one _'I finally don’t feel like I’m the only one who takes the relationship forward’._

As soon as he sees the ‘read’ sign, he hears a slight laugh from George on the call, and he knows everything is fine.

"...so, like, according to this tweet, Dream, you're going to be dating him for 1 month in like 8 days." Sapnap says, probably with the cell phone in hand browsing the #dnf on Twitter.

“Wow” is George who says it. “One month, wow”. Dream nods, and he prefers to pretend that others can see him, even if it's a little impossible "Dream, I didn't even see time go by".

“Me neither,” he says sincerely, but then adds in a playful tone: “What are we going to do when we reach a month?”

"Idiot" he replies.

Everyone is silent for a few seconds, before George screams, out of fucking nowhere, making Dream practically jump out of his chair. “Oh! I remembered what I had to tell you! Sapnap, write this one down, because it’s going to be good _as fuck!”_

"My God, here it comes," Quackity murmurs, and Karl lets out an amused laugh.

"Ok, Dream listen." He starts, and Dream settles back in his chair, making a low "hm?". “Do you know that one sentence they say? _You should run after you dreams_ , or something like that?” Dream nods, a smile on his face. He doesn't know how this is going to end.

It is then that he receives a photo on his Snapchat. "Wait, give me a minute to see the photo before you continue" he says aloud so he could have a genuine reaction.

"What the fuck is happening?" Sapnap whispes, and Quackity answers: “I have no fucking clue”

When Dream finally opens the photo, he doesn't understand it. It is a screenshot of the Goggle Maps application. In it, something practically impossible is shown: a marked path that goes from London all the way to Florida, passed exactly over the ocean that separated both cities.

In the corner of the photo, he could see that George had selected to know how long it would take him to get from London to Florida walking normally on his own feet (that, of corse, if he were some sort of Jesus and could walk over water). The estimated time was of 56 days, 14 hours and 52 minutes. But, well, he thinks the intention is what matters.

"So," George says again in his ear, making him come back to reality "I will run, _literally_ , after _my dream_ "

One, two, three seconds in silence until...

He bursts out laughing along with George, and everyone else.

He's not going to lie, that was actually ridiculously cute, and extremely smooth (it’s literally his nickname, c’mon). Seriously, he didn't know that side of George existed.

“Okay, go ahead, admit it, it was fucking good!” George practically screams at Dream while he's mouthing the first piece of his dinner

"That was shit!" Sapnap yeels back, laughing.

"Don't listen to them, George" Dream argues "That was extremely well planned, it was _really_ good."

"I know!" he exclaims, happy “Please, I spent an hour thinking about it to make sense in the context, and another hour to create a way for google maps to plan a route that would walk through the ocean” he laughs happily “Really. Everything was meticulously planned!”

"I'm waiting for your visit, ok?" Dream mumbles funny, but there is indeed a spark of desire inside his chest that wanted George to actually be able to cross the ocean so that they could get to know each other in person.

"Ok, ok, I have to admit this time" Quackity mumbles finally "You've got a point, George, I was speechless, that was _perfect_ ”

He laughs again, and meanwhile, Dream opens a new tab on google and searches as quick as possible: “ _pick up lines_ ”.

He opens the first website that appears, and quickly reads the lines until he finds something good.

Dream interrupts, therefore, the access of laughter from George and Karl: “George, George, George, listen” he says, and suddenly everyone is silent again “Is your name Google? Because you’ve got everything I’ve been searching for”.

He spreads in laughter, accompanied by all the boys, who shouted a leather of “Fucking shit”, “Dream you are terrible” and “For the love of God”.

A few seconds pass before George speaks again: "Dream, the thing is, life without you is like a broken pencil" he sighs, dramatically "It’s pointless".

The others sing "Ohhhh!" or "George you’re so good!" while Dream simply rolls his eyes smiling.

He was already prepared, however: "If you were a transformer, you’d be Optimus _Fine_ , George"

They all make sounds of disgust or disapproval, while Dream laughs like never before. He receives a notification from twitter: Quackity posted ‘when your friends have a pick up line competition... they cannot resist’, which makes he laugh even more.

But it can always get worse.

"Dream ..." George starts, and take a deep breath not to laugh "Do you like Star Wars? Because Yoda only one for me".

"Ok, enough!" Sapnap screams while everyone else laughs in despair "Enough, no more lines, _ever_ ". As everyone continues to laugh, he reassures: “And I’m being serious!”

"Ok, ok" George responds with a laugh, and Dream finally brings another piece of the almost untouched sushi to his mouth. However, Quackity interrupts: "No, please, do continue. Should we call Tommy again? Or even Wilbur and Niki-"

Dream remains silent, chewing, and the others laugh. After a while in silence Karl asks, "Is Dream still there?". He nodded before answering, it was a habit, he always forgets that he couldn't be seen. "Eating" he says quickly until he swallows. "And, yeah, I think I’m going to go now..." he comments, without _any_ ulterior motives.

Okay, yes, they had ulterior motives.

"I also need to go" George mumbles "I will prepare something to eat, I’m here in this chair here for _at least_ 4 hours".

" _Weak_ " Karl grumbles, and Quackity laughs next to Sapnap. "But okay, okay, enjoy your dinner"

“We talk later” Sapnap comments “Bye Dream, bye George”

They both mumble curled goodbyes. As soon as Dream leaves Discord, he closes the home screen and takes another piece of food to his mouth. He doesn't need to do anything; the message will arrive in a few moments.

One, two, three and...

His cell phone lights up next to him, a new message: _‘Genera 4?’_

 _Bingo_.

As soon as he enters the room, he hears George's long sigh.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Dream says, his voice coming out a little flustered by the food, but he didn't care, it was just George “ _this_ is how you end an unbearable conversation”

George lets out a laugh on the other end of the line, before saying "Want to see me?"

An, excuse me, _what?_

He practically chokes " _What?_ "

“ _See me_ , Dream, my boyfriend, love, babe, love of my entire life, _see me_ ” he mumbles sarcastically, then lets out a laugh. "Do you want me to turn on my facecam?"

Yes, he does. He definitely does.

Was he selfish for that? Highly likely.

George knew it was a one-sided offer. Dream wouldn't open _his_ camera. He couldn't do that, not yet, I'm sorry.

So yes, it was probably so fucking selfish.

But, on the other hand, _George_...

George correctly interprets his silence: "I'm not asking you to open yours" he says calmly, completely comfortable with the situation that he had put both of them on "If you don't want to, you don't have to, I just needed to show you something."

"No, no, ok." Dream says, shuffling a little. "That’s fine".

George produces a sound of agreement, and after a few seconds of silence and a few clicks, a small window hovered on the largest of Dream's monitors, where a George with a white blouse and messy hair appears.

"Do you see me?" he asks, still focused on some information on his screen, until he looks up at the camera again. Dream mutters a "Mhm" in response and he nods, leaning back against the chair.

"What did you want to show me, babe?" he asks, and something seems to shine in George's eyes, just like his big smile as he remembers whatever it was what he needed to show Dream.

He gets up and leaves the frame of the camera. Dream hears a few steps and takes sushi to his mouth twice before George appears again: this time with a fucking suitcase.

"What is this?" Dream asks in a doubtful tone as the suitcase is thrown against the surface of the bed. George comes even closer to the camera and takes his chair out of there so that Dream could see a better view of the suitcase gaping against the white fabric of the bedspread.

"This, Dream, is my bag!" he says smiling.

"Indeed" Dream replies sarcastically "I understand that part, but what do you need a bag for?" George sits down next to the suitcase and rolls his eyes.

“You are an idiot with amnesia” he says sarcastically “I told you _today_ that I am going to chase my dream, how do you expect me to do it? Without even taking a pair of underwear? I need a bag if I'm going after a idiot that lives in Florida!”

It's cute the way that Dream only calls George 'babe', but George only calls him 'idiot'.

Dream lets out an infectious laugh and takes out his phone. He's sure he saw something related to George and a suitcase somewhere. Two clicks on Twitter and he finds George's post in which he says he's going to visit his aunt for 2 or 3 days. So that’s why he has the bag for.

But Dream didn't want to end the story, he wants to see how far it can get.

“Oh yeah, I had completely forgot, I’m stupid, really sorry, babe” he says smiling, and chews the last Sashimi on the entire plate. "Come to my place and I will provide you some shelter".

"Okay," he says, holding on, looking seriously to nowhere, seeming to think about how many pants he would have to take. He sighs and turns his attention to the camera again "I have to pack yet, it's completely empty"

Dream laughs, and sets the empty plate aside, while watching George get up and go to the closet, opening the first drawer. Apparently Dream would help him pack, then.

"If I get in your house and you don't open the door…" he mumbles under his breath, and Dream takes the mouse to turn the volume up a little "I'll break the door down, you're warned"

“Ok, ok” Dream responds laughing “But there's no way you can break down the door 'cause there is an alarm. Relax that I’ll open it for you, even if it's at 3 am.” He sighs “at least it’ll be too late for anyone to see it”.

Obviously, along with their fictional story, they ignored the fact that Dream lived alone and that there was literally no one who could see them. Magic of imagination.

George turns his head to the camera again, and Dream catches his eyes and his smile "ohhh, Dream, so are we going to have a hidden romance?" Dream lets out a laugh and nods “and we’ll tell each other cliché sentences as the sun rises?”

"Yeah, yeah" Dream agrees laughing. “hiding it makes everything more _exciting_ ”

"Oh, so a vibe sort of _'now you and the moon are the only confidants of my love’."_ he nods, thoughtful "I don't know about you, but I think it's a really good idea” Dream smiles and looks at little George away from the camera taking what appeared to be two shirts to the suitcase.

They spend some time in silence, but it was not uncomfortable at all. It was just George worrying about choosing his clothes and Dream watching. From time to time he let out a nasal laugh when he saw George checking the color of his shirts on the label of them because of his color blindness.

George at a certain point goes to the table and takes his camera in his hand to show the suitcase, making sure Dream would see how 'completely organized' it was, which made Dream laugh since everything was practically thrown there.

"I can't wait for you to arrive," Dream comments, and George turns his eyes to the camera. It must be boring not being able to see Dream there just like he sees George, but there was nothing Dream could do about that, but, maybe, turn on his own camera. But that was out of the question.

George doesn't seem to mind, but Dream knew he did. Of course he did. George nods, and continues his smiling work, before Dream comments, "Just remember to call me when you arrive so I can turn off the alarm."

He laughs “Okay, I won’t forget. The suitcase is almost ready.” He sighs “Did I put here just a few clothes? _Yes_. But I'm taking less clothes in case we have fight. I'm already prepared to come back sooner if it happens. But don't worry, I'm getting there in 56 days, leave my bed tidy” Dream laughs and smiles as he looks, almost mesmerized, at the boy on his screen

Dream knew that the real reason why there were few clothes was because nobody needed a lot to spend 2 or 3 days at an aunt's house, but he prefers not to verbalize that thought.

"And if we don't fight, which clothes will you wear?" he asks, and George shrugs, untouchable "I’ll use yours".

Dream lets out a loud laugh "You are a _dwarf_ , my clothes won't fit you, babe"

"Idiot" he mumbles after some time in silence. "But it's true!" Dream practically screams, and George gives him a deadly look (which, pausing to think, it wasn’t _that deadly_ , if you look at it from the point that it was thrown on a camera, and not really to Dream himself)

“I know it's true, Dream, but you don't have to remind me”.

“I know you love me” Dream teases, and George rolls his eyes.

“You wish, Dream.

"Seriously, what does it cost you to say you love me _once_!"

“It costs me my _dignity_ ,” George says, closing the suitcase. "Never going to happen." he smiles at the camera "Ever”

When George holds his chair again to sit, Dream adds "Imagine me rolling my eyes at you right now, George".

He lets out a laugh before answering.

"I had already imagined" he sighs "I always do".

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, I'm letting clear that if one of the characters come to public to say they don't like this kind of story, I will be deleting this. Also, take it easy with me: it's my first story and English isn't my first language.


	5. I'll hug you

It’s almost noon when Dream finally opens his eyes.

It wasn't like he had slept that much; he had spent the whole night thinking anyway.

It's been 8 days since the call that George was _theoretically_ packing to go to Dream’s place. It’s been 7 days since George drove to his aunt's house, and 4 days since he returned.

Nothing has really changed to be honest.

Today was the day that he and George would finally complete 1 month as an official couple. Wow.

Still in bed, he thinks about this. About all of this. It’s not like he had already spent the whole night thinking about the same thing.

Okay, yeah, they weren't dating, like _dating_ , but they were, in fact, dating, somehow. Does that make sense? Probably not, but that’s literally what’s happening. And that’s why Dream can’t stop pondering about it.

There’s something wrong.

Dream thinks about that night, three days ago, when they were chatting before going to bed and George sent him that weird question he took so long to type.

‘Dream, I know we’re not really dating, but if you, you know, do something with someone else, can you, I don’t know, break up with me first? Because otherwise I’ll really feel cheated’.

This was the first time that any of the two mentioned a fact that was already obvious to both, but neither had ever said it out loud: _‘we are not really dating’._

Even though in the last few days George seemed much more comfortable with games, pick up lines and even nicknames, Dream did not expect _that_.

Because George thinks it’s all obviously fake. It’s all a joke. It isn’t true.

None of this is true, it has never been.

Dream groans as he remembers this little detail.

But if it's all false, why did George ask him that?

'Okay, babe' was his simply reply. ‘I’m not gonna lie, I was about to ask you the same fucking thing’

Dream expected this question from _himself_ , not from George.

It was... weird. He doesn’t know _how_ to explain why it’s weird, but it definitely is.

Dream also thinks about how this will someday end: one of the two will say ‘Ah, yes, it was cool and all that stuff, but now I think that’s enough’, or will anyone even say anything? Would they, over time, stop citing such the dating subject, until at a certain point, it will no longer exist? They’ll just forget.

Dream doesn't know how to answer. He doesn’t want to answer.

His head is confused. It’s full of thoughts, but at the same time it’s completely empty. Nothing makes sense.

Why has he been thinking about it for so long? It is irrelevant anyway. It’s not like it should be something to worry about.

And all of this just because they lasted 1 month. A relatively short time.

But when Dream was stupid enough to comply with the request from a donation and ask George to be his valentine, he thought it would last less than 3 days.

Why did he do this?

He should be sorry, thinking in this perspective. But he has no regrets.

He runs his tired hands over his eyes before resolving to end his weeping once and for all.

He sits on the bed, still a little confused and drowsy. He takes a deep breath before standing up, running his fingers through his hair to make himself at least presentable.

He looks around himself, the messy room: the wires of his set-up hidden behind the table, the wardrobe that remains without the clothes that were scattered in one corner and his bed not yet made.

When he takes the first step out of there, his cell phone starts to ring, though.

He groans tiredly, and goes to his desk, picking up the device that hovered there. Along with ‘Snapchat is calling you’ on the screen, he notes that he had only 16% battery life. He sighs and places the phone to his ear “What’s up, Sapnap?”

"Hello," he replies, and Dream can hear him yawning. Most likely he had just woken up too. "Good morning"

"What do you want?" Dream asks, pretending to be angry for having received a call so early (when it’s actually noon).

"Me?" Sapnap laughs, and Dream suppresses the urge to say a sarcastic comment instead of just being silent. "I'm calling you to ask when will the is the next manhunt scheduled to. I need to prepare myself, bro."

Dream stops and runs his hands over his tired face, ending with them scratching the back of his neck. "I literally have no idea, I haven't thought about it yet" he sighs heavily "when I figure it out I’ll let you know, okay?"

"Mhm" is the answer he receives.

"Anything else?"

"Actually, yeah" Sapnap lets himself be heard on the other end of the line, and Dream chooses to start his way to the kitchen so he can get something to eat.

"What?" he asks impatiently, after Sapnap remains quiet for too long.

He goes some seconds quiet before asking.

"What's going on between you and George?"

Dream freezes in the middle of the corridor. "What do you mean _what is happening?_ We're dating, haven't you noticed?”

Sapnap snorts. "Yeah, but I don't know, there's something weird, Clay"

Dream swallows.

“Like what, _Nick_?"

"I don’t know!" Sapnap looks a little exasperated, Dream wants him to calm down. "You don't know, but when I see you two making these little jokes together, _it feels so real"_

They both spent two seconds in silence.

Until Dream doubled over with the strength of his laughter, placing one hand on his chest, while the other wiped away a tear that was beginning to form in his eyes.

"I am serious!" Sapnap screams, and Dream can hear him even without his phone against his ear.

"I know you are, and that's what makes it so funny," he says between laughs, until he takes a deep breath and stands upright again.

When Dream finally calms completely down, he says “Sap, I don't know what the fuck you're talking about, or what fucking drug you took with Quackity, but you know we're _kidding_ , don't you?

He hesitates "It doesn’t look like you're kidding."

Dream lets out another laugh before answering “So what would we be? Do you really think we are passionate teenagers in love? You are worse than the girls who write fanfic over us, Sapnap”

Dream finally arrives in the living room, and the first thing he sees on the central table is the charger for his phone, and he makes a mental note that as soon as he disconnects with Sapnap, he’ll put it to charge.

"That's not it" Sapnap finally replies "It's just like, look, for example, why are you still dating him after all this time?"

He doesn't know how to answer that question. What should he say? "What do you mean by that?"

"You keep saying it is a joke and everything, but if it were a joke, it would have lasted 2 or 3 days, but you two are almost getting to 1 month-"

Dream interrupts him “Actually it’s today” he coughs “One month, yeah” he coughs, one more time “today”.

"See?!" Sapnap is exalted "Seriously, Dream, just admit that you are all in love with George and-"

The call is over

Dream takes a deep breath in the empty room and lets out a little laugh for nothing.

All of these accusations are ridiculous: it was obvious that he has no feelings for George. And he would never have it either.

He sighs as soon as he remembers that he needs to call George.

Yeah, _ok_ , he doesn't have to tell Sapnap that that was the first thing he thought as soon as he hung up.

But it was true, it was their anniversary, after all. He needs to call him.

So he turns on the phone in his hand again and clicks it to start calling George. He rests it against his shoulder so that he can have both hands free and be able to prepare Patches' food easily.

Dream doesn't even realize that it took 6 rings for George to finally pick up. And when he answers, the first thing he hears is a long sleepy moan from someone who has just woken up.

" _Dreeeeam_ " he says in a sob before letting out a long yawn "Why the fuck did you called me so early?"

Dream laughs alone as he picks up his cat's plate on the floor "You do know it’s like 5 pm in London, right?"

George mumbles "I thought we had already agreed that I’m on Florida’s time zone" he mumbles back.

Dream laughs again, trying hard not to drop the phone while opening the can with the food "So?" he asks “It’s literally noon, you should be awake already”

"I'm awake, aren't I?" he asks wryly, and then adds "thanks to an idiot who's green and has no face".

“For your information” Dream mumbles, a smile on his face “My shirt is brown.” A few seconds pass before he finally adds, "Not that you’d be able to differentiate anyway."

The call is silent for a few seconds before “Listen here, Dream…”, which made him release one of his wheezes “if you called me for _this_ , let me know now that I’ll hang up and go back to sleep.”

"I called you to say happy anniversary" Dream says calmly, mixing the food, when he remembers that he needs to put his phone on to charge. He walks over to the table and attaches the charger that was there to the device. The phone, finally off his shoulder, gave him momentary pleasure.

He doesn’t forget to put George on speaker so he could keep listening to his childlike complaints about absolutely anything.

"Oh, is it today?" he asks confused, and Dream rolls his eyes.

"Don't you even know the day we started dating, babe?" he says anguished.

“Well, forgive me, _love,_ if it wasn’t the most important moment of my entire life”

"Ugh, anyway" Dream grumbles, but he's smiling. "You should be happier with this _, it's our day!"_

"Literally, there is no way I can be happy with an asshole waking me up so early"

"It's five in the afternoon!" Dream screams.

“I don’t fucking care!” he yells back, and they both laugh together.

A few seconds go by, and Dream doesn't care if the silence would grow uncomfortably. He knows that George is most likely stretching on his bed or finally seeing what time it is on his phone.

When Dream finally takes the pot and puts it back where it used to be, but this time with food for Patches, he hears George say something "What exactly are you doing?"

"I just woke up, I had to prepare Patches’ food."

"Ah," he says, and yawns. "And how do you make her food?"

Dream giggles soft before answering that “First you have to like, obviously, get the food, and then you open it, pour into a-”

But George interrupts him “Okay, you’re so boring, I’ll search it on google”

Dream snorts fun and rolls his eyes, while George slowly says out loud what he’s typing on his phone: ‘how to prepare cat food’.

“You’re so ridiculous” Dream says sharply, and George completely ignores it, still seeing the probably thousands of sites that would teach how to make homemade cat food “You are like, the worse valentine ever. You don’t even care if it’s our anniversary”

“Ok, babe, I'm sorry” he mumbles nonchalantly, and continues, reading something stupid on google _“...4 teaspoons of canola oil..._ Jez, I wouldn’t ever do homemade cat food”

"Yeah, that’s why I buy it, idiot"

"Stop calling me idiot!"

“So stop searching how to do a homemade cat food, idiot,” he laughs “I mean, babe”

Ha laughs and give in. "Ok, I closed google, what do you want to do?"

Dream stops to think for a bit: actually, he has no idea. "I'm going to eat toasts; you can join if you want" he finally says. Perhaps if they ignored the ocean between them, they would feel closer.

“Dream, it's noon, you need to cook lunch, not toasts”

"Well I don’t cook, okay?" he says defensively "And you also need to eat something."

"I'll eat whatever you cook for us," he says, without even hesitating. Dream remains silent opening the cabinets, thoughtful. “Don't you remember that I went to visit you a few weeks ago? I've been living with you ever since. You will cook for both of us”

Dream smiles at himself. This is so stupid.

"Oh, yeah, of course" he says cheerfully, "Are you still in _our_ bed?"

“I'm coming down the stairs” Dream can imagine George's face: still lying on the bed, his phone resting on his chest and a smile expressed towards the ceiling. He wanted him to really be there, right on Dream’s the stairs. But instead, George is daydreaming about it, some thousands of miles away.

"I'm at the counter, then" Dream says, turning his back to the stairs. "Even if you go down, I won't be able see you."

George laughs “I'm gonna try to be quiet so I can scare you then, Dream".

Dream smiles and his heart races as if someone is really going to jump after him to scare the shit out of him. He mentally counts until three before George speaks on the call again.

"Dream?"

"Yeah?"

"You’re now feeling me poke you in your right shoulder"

Almost immediately, Dream looks over his shoulder. Obviously, there was nothing, but he liked to imagine. "I just looked behind my shoulder, George”

"You don't see anything," George says with a smile in his voice.

"Idiot..." Dream grumbles and looks in the opposite direction. "Okay, now I looked to my left".

George sighs heavily on the other end of the call. "So you see me."

Dream stares at _nothing_ in his kitchen.

Of course, he knew that obviously George would not magically appear behind him, but he was unable to lift the weight of a small, childlike disappointment that sank into his stomach.

"What do you do?" Dream speaks more softly.

"What are you doing now?"

He shrugs "I’m looking at you."

"So I’ll hug you," George says simply, his voice is calm, and Dream closes his eyes.

He can't do all this.

He replies, however, “I’ll hug you back, then”

He does nothing. He just stares at the wall behind him. The body supported against the kitchen counter. Anyone who saw him at that moment would say that Dream was probably talking to spirits.

But it was just George.

An ocean away.

But somehow, right there, in his kitchen.

Patches walks silently through the door and stares at its owner in confusion. Dream smiles in response, trying to show her comfort in some way.

She goes on her way to the food jar and starts to eat hungry.

"Patches is finally eating" Dream finally breaks the silence.

Neither of them said they had separated from the embrace, but it was inevitable. Dream didn’t think that at any time they would either admit who was the one who walked away first. They simply don’t know who it was.

"Is she really eating?" he asks a few seconds later, and Dream nods before remembering that he couldn't be seen.

"Mhm" he says, then lets out a laugh "She threw herself face down on the food"

The kitten looks at him suspiciously when she hears his laughter, but soon forgets and goes back to her meal.

"So, Dream," George says warmly. He hears the laughter in his voice. "What are we going to cook?"

[...]

The thing about cooking with George is… it _might_ not work.

Okay, it _probably_ won't work.

Because, well, Dream said from the beginning that he doesn't cook, but George convinced him that they could do something together.

He had finally gotten out of bed and headed for his own kitchen. They both spent almost 15 minutes on end discussing what they were going to do: it needed to be something the two of them had all the ingredients for. And that was an arduous task, mainly because Dream didn't have much in his cupboards.

He had already suggested to George that they should make a simple pasta at least 5 times until he finally gave in. He argued for so long that it was “something too common to do on such a commemorative date as our anniversary, Dream, let's do salmon” and then Dream had to explain, for the fourth time, that he definitely didn’t have salmon in his house, and the cycle is repeated over and over.

Dream even suggested to George do a live of that: maybe put a camera on the table and just go on telling the people what to do while on discord with Dream.

He denied the idea for two main reasons: 1. Dream could see him, but he couldn't see Dream, _unfairly_. And 2. That was _their_ day. They didn't need cameras, not today.

And while they talked about other streamers' bullshit or gossip, George got distracted and – incredibly - ended up burning the pasta sauce.

Of course, Dream laughed for at least 20 minutes in a row, and made fun of him for the next few hours.

They most likely spent the entire day together, and for the first time both weren’t even at the computer. Just a phone in their ear or even so headphones. They spent some time in the kitchen, or on the dining table in the living room.

Dream insisted that George set the table for a decent dinner (even with a slightly burnt pasta sauce), and George even sent him a photo.

Dream did the same, but on his photo, in addition to the table with the plate, the pasta and Patches in the background, he shows his hand with a thumb up. George laughs when seeing the image.

They have dinner together, and then Dream returns to his room, lying on the still messy bed to continue with the terrible small talk of them.

At one point he quickly says that his room was 'a little' messy, and George yells at him until he gets up to collect his dirty clothes on the floor.

Of course, Dream answered his other friends so they wouldn't be worried about missing an entire day, and George had probably done the same.

He wouldn't admit it, but he really enjoyed spending this time with George.

It was about 1 in the morning when they finally hung up (theoretically it was the fourth time they hung up on the day, but the 4 times were just George being dramatic), and as soon as he wiped the phone in his hand, he realized how alone he was.

He looks at Patches on the other end of the mattress, and snuggles close to her, lightly stroking her fur.

He sighs before getting up and definitively cleaning his room completely - see, he even started to clean the wires behind his computer, but he’s only human, and gave up 10 seconds later.

Dream did his hygiene (bathing, brushing teeth, all that stuff), and when he returned to his bed again, almost at 3 a.m., Patches was definitely asleep.

When he turns off the lights and pricks up his ears, the only thing he can hear is the insistent sound of wind coming out of the air conditioner.

He lies down and takes out his phone one last time in the day, he didn't intend to sleep that late tonight.

After spending 5 minutes on twitter (and seeing, good to mention, George’s “I’ve never liked pasta so much in my life” tweet), he finally gets the notification from George he was waiting for.

‘Good night, Dreaaaaaaam’

‘I meant babe’

‘Good night babe’

Dream laughs, before answering.

'Good night. Love ya george’

He puts the cell phone back on the desk, and directs his gaze to the dark, shadow-covered ceiling created by the moon.

A few seconds, however, another light source was created in his room: the cell phone light receiving a notification.

‘Love u too’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, I'm letting clear that if one of the characters come to public to say they don't like this kind of story, I will be deleting this. Also, take it easy with me: it's my first story and English isn't my first language.


	6. rawr

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story takes place in early November/December 2020, the references of Dream SMP are from that time. (basically when Tommy got exiled)
> 
> The song mentioned is called “Dinosaurs in Love” by Fenn Rosenthal, a 4-year-old girl. For better understanding, if you want, look for the song on YouTube, it's only 1 minute long and it's pretty sentimental haha :)

_‘Love u too’_

Those three words were enough for Dream to get up from the bed as abruptly as he could, rubbing his eyes to make sure he hadn't read anything wrong.

Sleep could be playing tricks on him. It had already happened.

But not this time.

And in the middle of the night, he starts laughing helplessly. Patches wakes up in a fright with the loud reverberation of his laughter, but Dream doesn't even seem to notice. He laughs until his chest starts to hurt.

When he sees it, the phone in his hand is calling George's number. He answers the call on the first ring, almost as if he were waiting patiently for the call.

"You said it!" Dream screams as soon as he picks up, laughing, and he can imagine George smiling and rolling his eyes. “You fucking said it! You really fucking did!”

“Well, technically” he coughs, but it's just a distraction from his low laugh “I didn’t _say_ it at all, I just typed it”

“I don’t fucking care, i’m gonna tweet about that” dream says completely decided and opens the blue app.

"You are not!" he yells in response, and Dream laughs as he gropes for the wall behind himself looking for a switch, and suddenly the room is plunged into a blind light.

"I'm not _just_ going to tweet, I'm going to put a screenshot, I don’t know, I’ll put proof!" he says contentedly. "George, this is not going to happen again in at least a _century_ , I need to enjoy it!"

"I'm your boyfriend, I can say that I love you, can't I?" George screams laughing.

Dream smiles "Well, maybe in theory, but you never do it.”

"I love you, Dream!" he screams it, but obviously he didn’t mean it. Dream laughs anyway – he chooses not to pay attention to that detail. “Do you want me to say it again? I’ll do it!" His voice reverberates through the quiet room with sarcasm, making Patches meow before George does exactly what he said he would do "I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, Dream, are you fucking happy?"

"Yes, yes I am" Dream tries to calm down again, even though his cheeks started to hurt with laughter. "Thank you very much, George, it really warmed your boyfriend's heart," he adds sarcastically.

“Oh, fuck off” he mumbles under his breath “You will never let me forget this, will you?” **  
**

"No, never" he says decided.

"I was drunk, just for the record," he says skeptically, which kicks off another laugh from Dream. "Please don't take advantage of my most vulnerable moment to expose myself on twitter"

“I swear I won’t mention your name” he tries to beg, but George is firm and maintains his ‘no’ despite all the requests.

After a long (ok, _not so long_ ) discussion regarding Dream’s tweet, he finally gives up trying to make George give in; he would never let Dream do it. So they finally say goodbye and go to sleep. Separately.

But this time, Dream kept thinking of several ways he could use George's ‘I love you’ against him for the next few days.

[...]

He failed to use George's ‘I love you’ against him.

Why? Well, all because George, for the next week, started saying 'I love you' to Dream… more easily. Yeah, I think you could say that.

And this means that half the time Dream begs George to say he loves him back, he actually does. Once, in a specific time, Dream _didn't even have to ask_. That was... _wow_.

How could Dream make fun of him like that? He just couldn’t. It just doesn’t make sense saying ‘oh, well, remember that night you said you loved me?’ if he had just said the same thing like 10 seconds ago.

They were, in a way, more open after that night. Any insecurity that George had about dating Dream seemed to disappear, as if he had lifted a weight off his back or something. It was easier. It _seemed_ easier, for both.

They could spend hours on calls, which could be just about Minecraft, or even hours flirting _shamelessly_. Neither of them cared anymore to be honest, everything was fine. And Dream was ok with it, he was happy.

Sapnap and Quackity were the ones who used to joke about it the most, but Karl also never missed an opportunity. Bad would usually just ignore it completely, or mutter something like _"hmm, so you two…?"_

A few days later, officially, all of the streamers they used to chat with were fully aware that George and Dream were dating (it was Sapnap’s idea, he wanted to see their reaction). They also knew it was a joke, of course, but some of them dared to think it was some kind of repressed feeling. The main rule was not to mention it live or post anywhere about it because, well, the fans would really believe something like that.

But everything was fine. Everything was perfectly fine between the two. It was _great_.

Until... _rawr_.

Does it make any sense? No, it doesn’t. **  
**But that’s what George texts Dream this morning.

Dream's first thought is: _‘is he making a joke about lions?’_ , but he remains confused for a really long time.

When he finally decides to ask George politely, excuse you, what the fuck was that supposed to mean, the answer he received was _'find out for yourself'._

And yeah, sure, but how should Dream find out what that means? It doesn't make any sense, please. He has nowhere to go with a simple word.

George doesn't want to help him in any way: when Dream called him almost half an hour later asking for some kind of tip, George just laughed in his face. Laughed! He dared to laugh, really? And then said: "you will find out, just think!". Dream hung up.

Dream opens Minecraft in a random world in the creative mode and goes to the inventory to look for any type of animal that could growl. A dog? What would that have to do with anything anyway? A dog? Is George adopting or something?

He is extremely confused, but he’s even more distressed.

Dream sighs while running his eyes over the different eggs that could spawn different animals. A fox, perhaps? Why would a fox be important? Dream doesn't think George would be close to adopting a fox.

And yet, does this have anything to do with Minecraft? How would Dream know if that wasn't just the sound that a dinosaur made in George's confused dream last night and that he was just playing a trick on him?

What does he do with ‘rawr’? It doesn't make any sense. What does he need to find with a stupid onomatopoeia?

10 minutes later Dream finally gives up and goes to his kitchen with the purpose of making something to eat (or at least try). In the meantime, he sends a non-pretentious message to Karl saying, _'what is the first thing that comes to mind when you read the word rawr?'_ But his reply, which was _'jurassic park'_ wasn’t really helpful at all.

Dream yet calls Sapnap to ask for advice "How are dinosaurs related to George?" he asks as soon as the other answers it.

Sapnap takes a few seconds to answer, “No idea, dude, why?” and Dream snorts in exasperation, his lunch didn't even look so tasty anymore. He wants to know what the hell does rawr mean.

Why does it seem so important?

He hangs up after mumbling a stupid excuse and a promise that would later explain to Sapnap what was going on, even though he didn't intend to do it.

He takes almost 40 minutes to finish his food and another 40 on twitter until he sits down again in the chair in front of his computer. He opens Minecraft and the screen on which he could see Nether behind the main buttons seemed to ask him ‘how are you going to play today?’

He sighs audibly. Why can't he just _think_? **  
**That's when Sapnap sends him a message asking if he’d like to join his call with George, and he agrees. A few seconds later a conversation that is definitely not normal between the two is overheard on his headset.

As soon as Dream enters the room, Sap greets him: “Hey Dream”

He just says “Hello” in response before opening a new tab in the guide and confirming that Sapnap was live, speedrunning. The conversation was then being broadcast, he couldn't say anything too compromising.

"So, Dream..." George starts a few seconds later, and coughs laughing "Did you figure out the meaning of..." he doesn't complete the sentence, but Dream knows exactly what he’s talking about.

"No.” He says dryly, slightly anguished, and George echoes a laugh. “No, I actually didn’t George, but that’s ‘cause there’s not much to discover with a freaking onomatopoeia”

"Hm… excuse me" Sapnap says softly, and Dream turns his attention to his screen, where his avatar on the display went up in 3 blocks so that he could kill an iron golem "What exactly are you two talking about?"

"Nothing" both answered at the same time and laughed afterwards, making Sapnap complain.

“Oh, c’mon, I hate to feel left out”

Dream smiles. "I'll explain to you after the live is over" George replies content, before adding "but you have to promise not to give Dream any hints"

“That’s unfair,” he mumbles.

"Wait..." Sapnap starts slowly and clears his throat. "Does this have anything to do with Dream calling me earlier today asking me how he could relate George to a dinosaur?"

"No, no, no, no!" Dream starts to scream next to a wheeze “Don’t tell him that!”

"You did what?" George laughs in response “I can’t believe you”

“Oh, c’mon, how am I supposed to know what that means, George, that’s cruel” Dream says softly, and checks the time: it was still 5:12 pm.

George groans in disgust “Now chat will figure what it is about before Dream does, even though they only know it’s something related to dinosaurs, thanks to you two”

Dream gets up again and faces the screen of the open discord “Wait, is it really about dinosaurs?” he coughs “I mean, it could be about lions or even wolfs, I don’t know”

He looks closely until he sees a green circle forming around George's profile photo “Shut up, Dream, I said nothing”

"You did say!" Dream screams, and Sapnap laughs in the background "It really is something about dinosaurs, isn’t it?"

“You guys are making me really confused right now” Sapnap grumbles, and Dream rolls his eyes.

"Okay, get your phone, I'll send a message explaining it" George finally gives in, and almost two full minutes pass with Dream just calmly watching Sapnap making a nether portal and subconsciously thinking why a dinosaur would be important.

"What?" Sapnap says finally, as he probably receives George’s message.

"Did you tell him?" Dream asks, pretending disinterest. Probably now Sapnap knows what that means.

"Mhm" George replies, "And I also explained why"

Dream snorts in response “I hate you two”

“No, you don’t” Sapnap laughs, and Dream wants to punch him in the face “You love us.” He coughs "Well, technically, you love George more, but that's okay, I can accept it"

"Shut up" he says, starting to feel embarrassed, and he leans all his weight against the chair behind him, staring at the white ceiling of his room where some shadows created by the sun could be seen. "I'm sure that when I find out, it’ll be something so stupid..."

"It really will" Sapnap crumbles.

"I don't know how you haven't figured it out yet," George concludes.

"You are not helping!" Dream screams. “Fuck it, I’ll search it on google and see what I can find”

Both on the call fall into a dead ass silence. Not a single sound.

“Oh, c’mon, you’re kidding me” he mumbles “It can’t be. It can’t be this simple…” Dream mutters to himself in answer. It’s not possible all he needed to do was type it in google.

Dream quickly opens a new tab on google, and types as fast as he can _‘what does rawr means’_ in the search bar and clicks enter.

“Yeah, George, it really didn't last long until he found out” Sapnap grouses, and George grumbles in disagreement.

As soon as the page loads, the first thing Dream reads is: “I love you. In the language of dinosaurs, the word ‘rawr’ is equivalent to the human phrase ‘I love you’”

Dream spends about 10 seconds in silence until it erupts in laughter.

"Oh, no, you didn’t!" he screams “All this time for… this?! That’s it? George!”

"I'm sorry!" he says at the other end of the line “But it's the truth!”

A slight “Awwww” is heard from Sapnap, and Dream rolls his eyes in response.

“Me too, your dumbass” Dream replies, actually talking about the ‘I love you’ that George sent him in the language of the dinosaurs. He could not speak the full sentence since Sapnap was live, but he knows that George would understand the meaning.

A few minutes later, talking about silly shit and laughing at stupid jokes, Sapnap ends up dying in the nether and the three decide to enter Dream SMP. Nobody is doing anything potentially important, so they just run through the world until they find Ranboo and Tubbo, who are building something (Dream has no idea what it is exactly, to be honest) and ramble on while Dream anxiously waits for Tommy to go online so he’d be able to go and visit him in exile.

They were all talking when Dream stretches, leaning back on the chair and placing both arms above his head. In that movement, his eyes flew to the monitor that was split with half of the screen on Sapnap's stream and the other half with the rawr meaning.

He looks closely and goes down the research page, finally seeing a cartoon drawing of a happy dinosaur. The caption read _“happy dinosaur until it died :(”._

And it might have reminded Dream of something.

As soon as Sapnap stops talking, Dream raises his voice. "Hey, George?" His avatar turns to Dream, and if he could show emotions through the game, he would probably have a raised eyebrow to him “I'm going to send you a link, can you mute yourself and watch it? I swear it´s just like 50 seconds long."

George groans in protest "Now?"

"Yeah, now.” Dream stretches anxious “can you?"

George hesitates. "Okay, fine".

Dream opens a Youtube tab and looks for the song he had just remembered - it was something like ‘dinosaurs in love’ or ‘loving dinosaurs’. He finds the video he was looking for pretty quickly, it’s just 1:06 long.

He copies the link at the top of the page and pastes it into the conversation with George. As soon as he sees George's microphone mutating, he does the same, cutting one of Tubbo's sentences in half.

Dream played the video, it was a song written and sung by a 4-year-old child. He had seen it about 3 or 4 days ago on twitter.

The video’s light pink background appears, along with the simple drawing of a red dinosaur as the song begins, the voice of a young girl echoing _“dinosaurs eating people...”_ the big red dinosaur swallows a man. _“Dinosaurs in love”._ A blue dinosaur appears and they both face each other. They end up kissing.

 _“Dinosaurs having a party”_ the girl continues to sing, and the dinosaurs in the video continue to do what they are told by the lyrics, and they have a blast on a _typical_ dinosaur party. _“they eat food and cucumber.”_

 _"They..."_ the little girl's voice fails, as if she is thinking what the next phrase would be _"...fell in love”_. The blue animation dinosaur gives a flower to the red one. On the background, it is possible to hear the child's father encouraging her “ _and then what, they...?”_

The girl continues happy: _“they say thank you!”_

Now is the time that things start to go wrong _"A big band came and they...”_ the girl hesitates, _“and they died"._ Both dinosaurs in the animation turn to smoke and the next scene is of two gravestones, one next to the other.

 _“Dinosaurs, dinosaurs, fell in love, but they didn’t say… goodbye”_ the girl’s soft voice echoes through Dream’s headphones. _"But they didn’t say goodbye"._ **  
**As soon as the video comes to an end, Dream goes back to TeamSpeak and unmutes himself again, waiting for the moment when George would return for the call. He wants to see his reaction.

This happens 5 seconds later.

"Guys..." his voice is melancholy "I can't believe Dream made me cry ‘cause of two dinosaurs that died from the big bang"

It is only possible to hear Dream's weak laugh until everyone else asked at the same time what had just happened.

Dream smiles before explaining "I sent him the link of a 4-year-old girl singing a story about two dinosaurs that fall in love but end up dying before saying goodbye".

"It hits hard" George adds, before sniffing loudly. “They didn’t say goodbye, Dream”

"Yeah, yeah, I know" he says seriously. It is, in any case, a pretty sad song. "But now they are space dust together."

"I don't think that helps," Tubbo comments, and Ranboo quickly agrees.

“It's not my fault if y’all are sensitive to the dinosaur love story” Dream shrugs.

Sapnap disagrees with “not ‘ _y’all’_ Dream, only George”

"Well, it's not my fault anyway" Dream mumbles joy.

"’Course it is!"

“You were the one who started the dinosaur story” Dream points out, and Sapnap agrees with a “That’s true”. Tubbo and Ramboo are pretty much simply confused and probably preferred to just ignore the beautiful moment between them.

"Yeah, but I sent you something with a dinosaur to make you happy, and you sent me something with a dinosaur to make me cry, completely unfair" George argues.

Dream laughs softly. " _Very, very unfair"_ he mocks him "But look, now you have two dinosaurs that died to direct all your sadness"

He grumbles in agreement “Sure, sure, Dream.” He sniffs “I hate you"

Dream laughs "And I rawr".

Dream wouldn't deny it, it was a great way to be able to say that specific phrase (that 3 little words) in front of everyone.

"Yeah, yeah, I know" George says absently, but turns his avatar's face back to Dream and slowly approaches, while Ranboo and Tubbo are already starting to discuss something related to the color of the wood again with Sapnap. Then George whispers, his face almost touching Dream’s "me too, you know".

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm just letting clear that if one of the characters come to public to say they don't like this kind of story, I will be deleting this. Also, take it easy with me: it's my first story and English isn't my first language.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, I'm letting clear that if one of the characters come to public to say they don't like this kind of story, I will be deleting this. Also, take it easy with me: it's my first story and English isn't my first language.


End file.
